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Trains of Thought All in good time Tony Koester challenging them to spot the errors and omissions as such cars whiz by at 55 mph on hot MB-98. I also point out that, should they find themselves in my basement during an operating session, they will have jobs to do, and holding up a magnifying glass to my freight car fleet won’t be one of them! Progress on the Nickel Plate’s Third Sub has finally reached the point where I can enjoy sitting down at my workbench and scratchbuilding or kitbashing structures. I also have some sections of relatively finished scenery. Put another way, the railroad and the equipment that supports its operating scheme work sufficiently well for me to devote some time to the cosmetics. As I have written before, I feel Can you spot any detailing shortcomings in these freight cars as MB-98 speeds over Coal Creek at the east end of Veedersburg, Ind., on Tony’s HO scale Nickel Plate layout? Tony Koester photo It’s human nature to focus on the task at hand, especially if it’s something like putting out a fire or keeping the car headed in a straight line on an icy road. In a model railroad context, we can’t do everything at once, so we have to approach the task of building a layout – the primary goal of most modelers, I’ll wager – in a reasonably logical, somewhat sequential and focused manner. But like almost everything else, this is far more difficult than it seems. Several of my friends, the modelers whose work I admire most and therefore try to emulate, have an unfair advantage over my efforts to model a Midwestern granger railroad in the mid 1950s: They started before I did. From day one, I’ve been playing a game of catch-up with them. I’m here; they’re waaaay over there. But why should I even try catch up? Well, to some extent, competition is good. It’s the very essence of the American Way as we embrace athletic and scholastic and business competition. Put another way, golfing by yourself isn’t much fun. There are limits, however. If winning a blue ribbon in a model contest helps to make you a better modeler, that’s good. If beating the 88 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com other guy is your main objective, you may have confused hobbies with sports. My railroad has finally reached the point where all track-laying decisions have been made, checked, and finalized. A few lengths of rail remain to be spiked down, but otherwise my focus has now shifted toward refining what I already have built to improve operational reliability. To that end, I’m equipping my freight car fleet with metal wheels that roll before a gentle puff of wind. Save for a few heavily weighted brass engines, my steam fleet won’t have it any other way; the Mikados and Berkshires simply won’t pull 25 to 30 cars equipped with so-so trucks up the continuous westbound spiral between decks. Many of these cars aren’t up to today’s lofty standards. We can drop into a hobby shop and head home with a freight car detailed to the nines. But I can’t afford to buy hundreds of these cars, so cars built from plastic kits of the 1960s are still doing yeoman service on my NKP. Some of my friends question why I would claim to be doing sincere prototype modeling, yet run cars with obvious (to them, any way) detail defects. I counter by strongly that one’s first efforts should be directed toward getting a model railroad running. Only then will you find what you’ve omitted and can make corrections at minimum cost and pain. That task accomplished, you can then comfortably move on to structures and scenery, and then to freight car and locomotive detailing. I have several good-running brass Mikes and Berks that need to be backdated and relettered for the Nickel Plate, a project I am eager to tackle. But such chores have to be kept near the bottom of my priority list until more pressing matters – such as a place to run the finished models – have been attended to. These tasks will be accomplished, but all in good time. First I was devoted to design and benchwork. Then came subroadbed, backdrops, lighting, and roadbed. Next was, hallelujah, track. The drudgery of wiring soon followed, along with landform scenery and some structures. I’m now adding ground cover and foliage and extra details. Next to last will be the freight car upgrade program, when my vast collection of resin kits will eventually occupy less space in my storage cabinets and more room on my layout. Finally, I’ll get the steam and diesel fleet upgraded to more properly honor their prototypes. Meanwhile, I have a fully operational railroad in my basement. And that, after all, was my original goal.MR